Faculty Videos

Maria Renz, MBA'96 and technical advisor to the CEO of Amazon.com, chats with Dean Eric Johnson about her career journey, how technology has helped her personal life, and a leadership lesson about being 'sometimes smart."

Cotter Cunningham is the founder, president and CEO of RetailMeNot, Inc., the world's largest online coupon and deals marketplace. Cunningham is also a Vanderbilt MBA alum, and he recently returned to campus to speak to students as part of the Owen School's Distinguished Speaker Series. Hear Cotter's take on his career, leadership, and his proudest moment as CEO.

Kris Joshi, Executive Vice President Products of Emdeon, discusses consumer driven health with M. Eric Johnson, Dean of Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management, as part of the INFORMS Healthcare Conference. They cover the drivers of change, how the use of analytics is impacting healthcare, and the critical issue of patient data security.

Keeping middle managers happy with their supervisors is the key to retaining the lower-level workers they manage and avoiding expensive turnover costs, according to a Vanderbilt University study. “Middle managers’ treatment of employees reflects how bosses treat them,” says Ray Friedman, Brownlee O. Currey Professor of Management at Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Previous studies have found that high employee turnover lowers customer satisfaction. It’s also been previously established that the level of satisfaction with a supervisor is a reliable predictor of turnover intentions.

Finance Professor Craig Lewis returned to Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management in the fall of 2014 after three years as Chief Economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He talks with Owen Dean M. Eric Johnson about how academic research played a role in his regulatory work — and vice versa.

Vanderbilt's Robert Whaley, creator of the VIX and the Valere Blair Potter Professor of Management at the Owen Graduate School of Management, discusses the dangers of exchange-traded funds (ETF) tied to volatility with Mad Money host Jim Cramer. He appeared on the episode that aired April 10, 2014.

Mark A. Cohen, Justin Potter Professor of American Competitive Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, explains a unique new MBA class combining financial analysis with environmental, social and governance (ESG) data.

With Fed policy pushing interest rates to historic lows, investors seeking steady returns without much risk have few places to turn. But there are still opportunities to receive a return on investment. Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, Roger Ferguson, Jr., CEO of TIAA-CREF, Owen Professor Robert Whaley, and Michael Brakebill, Chief Investment Officer of the Tennessee Retirement System, discussed these issues at a panel held at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, March 12, 2013.

Financial Markets Research Center 25th Anniversary Spring Conference at Vanderbilt University: Donald Kohn, Brookings Institution Fellow and former Vice Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Patrick Parkinson, Former Director of Banking Supervision and Regulation for the U.S. Federal Reserve

Professor Vogus' research focuses on understanding and improving processes through which organizations build capabilities for learning and resilience. He is especially interested in these dynamics in health care settings and their effects on the incidence of medical error at the point of care delivery. In his latest paper, Vogus and co-authors from the University of Michigan lay out a comprehensive three-prong framework of how to create a safety culture in health care settings.

Professor Palacios' primary research interests lie in the areas of asset pricing and labor economics, particularly as they relate to human capital. In 2001, Professor Palacios co-founded Lumni Inc., which structures and manages innovative investment vehicles for financing education in which students agree to pay a percentage of their future income in exchange for financing their education.

Professor Pace uses her formal training in the performing arts to bring a unique perspective to business education and practice. She says effective communication is one of the most valuable tools for a successful business career. A former communications consultant, Pace led marketing and communications efforts for two international non-profit agencies based in Nashville prior to coming to Vanderbilt.

A world-renowned researcher, Professor Christie received a Vanderbilt Chair of Teaching Excellence in 1996, and the James A. Webb, Jr. Award for Excellence in Teaching on three occasions between 1994 and 1998. Professor Christie is a five-time recipient of the Executive MBA Teaching award and was ranked either first or second among star faculty in each Business Week ranking from 1992 through 2000.

Before returning to Owen’s faculty in 2005, Professor Froeb served as Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission for two years where he managed over a hundred civil servants dedicated to tearing down barriers to competition. It was during this time that Professor Froeb says he became fully aware of the power of academic models to shape real-world decision-making.

Professor Victor's research interests lie in the practical and moral dimensions of enterprise approaches to the alleviation of poverty, the ethical foundations of business, and the social and moral consequences of new organizational forms. He also helps lead Project Pyramid, an interdisciplinary student organization that aims to alleviate world poverty in areas ranging from Bangladesh to Guatemala.

A certified public accountant with a distinguished record of professional achievement and participation in the activities of the American Accounting Association (AAA), Professor Jeter has also won numerous accolades for her teaching excellence. In addition to her research and teaching roles, Professor Jeter wrote the screenplay for the film Jess + Moss, which was screened at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and directed by her son, Clay.

A renowned scholar in the field of options research, Professor Stoll came to Vanderbilt in 1980 from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he had been on faculty since 1966. In 1987, he founded Owen’s Financial Markets Research Center, which seeks to connect researchers and practitioners on pressing issues in finance. Past FMRC conference speakers have included former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, as well as Nobel recipients Robert Merton and Myron Scholes.

As he was studying the operations of the major financial markets in the mid-1990s, Professor Christie, along with collaborator Paul Schultz, concluded that Nasdaq market makers were implicitly colluding to maintain artificially high trading profits at the expense of investors. Class action lawsuits led to settlements with securities firms topping $1 billion. The findings, published in the Journal of Finance in December 1994, also helped usher in a series of reforms that endure today.

Owen professor Ranga Ramanujam and other researchers studied 22,603 fourth-down decisions over five NFL seasons to understand when teams were more likely to attempt a seemingly risky fourth-down conversion. The goal is to apply this research to organizations. These findings are reported in a forthcoming study in Organization Science.

Professor Steve Hoeffler is an expert in consumer products marketing, brand management and consumer behavior. His research on such topics as positioning multiple category products, marketing radically new products and the advantages of strong brands has appeared in such journals as Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Product Innovation Management and Journal of Marketing Research.

Richard Daft, Brownlee O. Currey Professor of Management and an expert in leadership issues, discusses how he combined research in management, psychology, neuroscience and Eastern spirituality, along with years of teaching, executive coaching, and personal application, in his latest book, The Executive and the Elephant: A Leader’s Guide for Building Inner Excellence.

Professor Ramanujam is a leading researcher and consultant on the organizational causes and consequences of operational failures in high-risk work settings. His current research examines the role of leadership, communication, and learning processes in enhancing the quality and safety of health care.

Professor Friedman specializes in negotiation, conflict resolution, Chinese management, and diversity. A widely quoted and published expert, Friedman taught at Harvard Business School, where he served as a faculty member of the Program on Negotiation.

Professor Barry's research and expertise cover social issues in management, including ethics, workplace rights, public policy, and new media, as well as interpersonal and group behavior in organizations. He also examined free expression and workplace rights in his book Speechless: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace.

Professor Friedman specializes in negotiation, conflict resolution, Chinese management, and diversity. A widely quoted and published expert, Friedman taught at Harvard Business School, where he served as a faculty member of the Program on Negotiation.

Professor Ramanujam is a leading researcher and consultant on the organizational causes and consequences of operational failures in high-risk work settings. His current research examines the role of leadership, communication, and learning processes in enhancing the quality and safety of health care.

Since joining the Owen faculty in 1984, Paul Chaney has won three teaching awards as well as the Dean's Award for Excellence in Research in 2003. He has co-authored, with Debra Jeter, a textbook, Advanced Accounting, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and over 20 research papers for academic journals.

Professor Bollen has had twelve research papers accepted for publication since joining the faculty of Owen in 2001, including eight in the top finance journals. Professor Bollen's current research agenda is focused on hedge funds.

Professor Escalas' research interests focus on consumer narrative processing — thinking in the form of stories — which can create meaning for brands and generate emotional responses to advertising. She is a member of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science editorial boards.

Since joining Owen in 1977, Professor Böer has initiated numerous entrepreneurship activities at Owen, including an annual entrepreneurship conference; student sessions with venture capitalists; and a new course, "Adventures in Entrepreneurship," in which Owen students learn how to start a new venture by working directly with entrepreneurs.

Professor Parsley's current research focuses on exchange rates and the integration of goods and services markets, financial markets, and labor markets. He is also working on measuring the effects of political connections on the quality of accounting information, and on the financial performance of politically connected firms.

Michael Burcham has over 20 years of extensive experience in health care innovation, entrepreneurship, and startup venture coaching. He is currently serving as President and CEO of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Dr. David Furse has over 30 years experience as a marketing professor, business entrepreneur and strategy consultant. He founded NCG Research, Inc., a consulting and market research firm and grew it into a leader in the health care outcomes measurement field.

Professor Cooil has developed reliability estimators for qualitative data that are used widely in business and management, communication, applied psychology, psychometrics, health care and in the natural sciences. For his collaborative work in marketing, he has also received several awards, including the Lehmann Award (2001) and the H. Paul Root Award (2007).

Professor Barry's research and expertise cover social issues in management, including ethics, workplace rights, public policy, and new media, as well as interpersonal and group behavior in organizations. He also examined free expression and workplace rights in his book Speechless: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace.

Over the past 18 years, Professor Schorr has been an active force in developing the social enterprise movement in the U.S. and globally, and he has written and spoken widely on the use of business models for social change. He currently is Board Chairman of Net Impact and serves on the boards of The Nature Conservancy (TN), Social Enterprise Alliance, Global Social Venture Competition, and Oasis Center, Nashville’s leading youth development organization.

Professor Owens serves on the faculty at Owen in the area of organizational behavior. Specializing in strategic innovation and product development, Owens also delivers executive education programs and consulting services to a wide range of clients around the world.

Professor Hyer is one of the leading academics in the operations field. Her work in the academic and business communities has focused on cellular manufacturing, process redesign, and project management.

A noted expert in organization behavior and organization design, Professor Daft has published 12 books, dozens of articles, and presented at more than 45 universities around the world. His latest book is The Executive and the Elephant: A Leader's Guide to Building Inner Excellence.

Professor Van Horn is a leading expert and researcher on health care management and economics. His research on health care organizations, managerial incentives in nonprofit hospitals and the conduct of managed care firms has appeared in such leading publications as the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Medical Care, Medical Care Research and Review, Journal of Public Budgeting and Financial Management and Harvard Business Review.

Professor Friedman specializes in negotiation, conflict resolution, Chinese management, and diversity. A widely quoted and published expert, Friedman taught at Harvard Business School, where he served as a faculty member of the Program on Negotiation.